Doom 64

It uses a customized version of the Doom engine, enabling new kinds of level geometry, and dynamic colored lighting. The game features new sprite graphics for weapons and monsters. 64 received positive reviews from critics, who praised its graphics, level design, soundtrack, and atmosphere, although some criticized the lack of new gameplay elements compared to the previous games of the series. It gained a cult following, with several fan-made PC source ports and mods. A remaster was developed by Nightdive Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in March 2020, and for Stadia in May 2020.

• Title — Doom 64 • Developer — Midway Studios San Diego • Series — Doom • Engine — Doom engine KEX Engine (re-release) • Platforms — * Nintendo 64 • Nintendo Switch • PlayStation 4 • Windows • Xbox One • Stadia • Released — Nintendo 64 NS, PS4, Win, XBOMarch 20, 2020 Stadia • Genre — First-person shooter • Modes — Single-player • Designer — * Randy Estrella • Timothy Heydelaar • Danny Lewis • Programmer — Aaron Seeler • Artist — Sukru Gilman • Composer — Aubrey Hodges

• Illustration — A demon approaches the chainsaw-wielding player in Staging Area, the first level. Doom 64s gameplay is similar to that of earlier Doom games. The player must advance through 28 story levels (and 4 secret levels) by battling demons, collecting weapons and keys, and activating switches to reach the level's exit while surviving deadly ambushes and traps. The Doom engine and gameplay elements were customized, and all visual assets such as weapon and monster graphics are unique to Doom 64.

All the weapons from Doom II are present, but with new sprites and sound effects. The chainsaw has two blades instead of one, the fists have bloodstained gloves instead of brass knuckles, the plasma gun has an electric core that emits a sparking sound, the rocket launcher has a small kickback, the shotgun's priming handle is at the grip instead of under the barrel, and the double-barreled super shotgun reloads faster and causes kickback. There is also a new weapon, unofficially called the Unmaker, which uses hitscan but looks like a projectile weapon. It uses the same cell ammunition as the plasma gun and BFG 9000. It had originated in the Doom Bible in 1992, and was planned for the original Doom in 1993. Its appearance in Doom 64 is its only official appearance prior to Doom Eternal, in which it is spelled "Unmaykr". Three ancient artifacts hidden throughout the game's levels may be collected to upgrade the weapon. The first artifact increases the fire rate, the second artifact adds a second laser, and the third artifact allows the weapon to fire three simultaneous lasers which can automatically aim separately from one another, allowing the player to attack up to three different enemies at once with huge amounts of rapid damage.

Most of the enemies found in Doom and Doom II are present in Doom 64 with similar behavior and attributes. However, the revenant, arch-vile, spiderdemon, and "heavy weapon dude" enemies are not present. Midway added one new monster to Doom 64, the nightmare imp, a variant of the imp from the original game. A unique final boss, the Mother Demon, was also created. Many of the existing enemies received substantial visual redesigns.

Following the Doom Marine's success at thwarting Hell in Doom, Doom II: Hell on Earth, and in the Final Doom storyline, a quarantine is established on the U.A.C. research installations with apocalyptic levels of radiation. For years, the installations stood abandoned, until a barely-functioning satellite monitoring one of them sends a message back to Earth. This message indicates that a "single entity with vast rejuvenation powers" was masked by the radiation and escaped detection. The entity was able to resurrect the demons by altering "decaying dead carnage back into corrupted living tissue". As the only experienced survivor of the Doom episodes, the Marine is sent in alone to exterminate them. However, the Marine realizes the demons have planned to lure him back into Hell. They are nonetheless unable to defeat him, and with the Unmaker, he eventually battles and kills the Mother Demon. The game ends with the Marine, no longer capable of having a normal life following his encounters with Hell's forces, deciding to remain in Hell forever to ensure no demon ever rises again. In the Lost Levels from the 2020 remaster, the story continues as the Mother Demon was revealed to have a sister called the "Resurrector". It banishes the Marine back to a UAC base, forcing him to fight his way back to Hell to stop the Demons. It branches the storyline between the original games with the 2016 reboot of Doom and Doom Eternal.

Doom 64 was developed by Midway Games at its San Diego studio. id Software, the primary developer of the Doom franchise, supervised the project. Development began in late 1994. Its tentative title of The Absolution was changed to Doom 64 for brand recognition, and reused as the name of the last level. Midway wanted to include every demon from the original games into the final product, along with extra levels. However, deadlines and storage size constraints of the Nintendo 64 Game Pak cartridges led them to them exclude the levels and a few demons. Midway stated that a multiplayer mode was not included because Nintendo did not provide the necessary resources for multiplayer programming. Midway justified the decision based on alleged slowdown during split-screen multiplayer in other games on the console and the competitive nature of the mode. A Midway representative stated, "Everyone knows that the best part of playing multiplayer is not knowing where your opponent is and with a four-player split-screen, everyone can easily see where their opponents are." The environments were built from 3-dimensional polygon models, and the enemies were created by pre-rendering sprites with SGI workstations. The Nightmare Imp was originally developed for the PlayStation version of Doom and appeared in a near-complete beta of the game, but was removed just prior to release for unknown reasons. It debuted in Doom 64 instead. Doom 64 was slated to be a North American launch game, but near the deadline id Software expressed dissatisfaction with many of the level designs, so Midway postponed the game until April 1997 while redesigning the levels. Nintendo's then-recent decision to remove the ability to run over animals from the Nintendo 64 version of Cruis'n USA raised concerns about the possibility of censoring Doom 64, but Midway vice president of software Mike Abbot said Nintendo had not voiced any concerns about the game's violent content. He pointed out that Cruis'n USA was perceived by the public as a family game, while the Doom series was targeted towards mature gamers, making violent content less of a concern. The music and sound effects were composed by Aubrey Hodges, who had created the original sound effects and music for the PlayStation version two years earlier. The original Doom 64 team was working on a potential sequel titled Doom Absolution designed only for two-player deathmatches soon after the first game was released, but canceled it. Because id Software was impressed with the team's work on Doom 64, they were assigned to the Nintendo 64 version of Quake at this time. Doom 64 was shipped to retailers by Midway on March 27, 1997, and released on April 4.

A remaster of Doom 64 for the PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One by Nightdive Studios was released on March 20, 2020, and for Stadia on May 12, 2020. It was included as a bonus for pre-orders of Doom Eternal, which was released almost simultaneously. The re-release includes The Lost Levels expansion, additional missions intended "to connect 'old' Doom to 'new' Doom". The Doom Marine is forced out of Hell by the Resurrector, the Mother Demon's sister, and must fight his way back to Hell to slay the creature.